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Mentok the Mindtaker
Mentok is one of the rogue gallery villains of the Hanna Barbera super-hero, Birdman. He was a regular part of the second season of Swim's Harvey Birdman, attorney-at-law, a mockery series of the original Birdman series and many other classic Hanna Barbera cartoons. ''Birdman'' Mentok was an alien mad-scientist in the original Birdman cartoons. He was just one of several of Birdman's villains. Mentok made many dooms-day devices and advanced weaponry but his preferred modus-operandi involved the use of mind-control devices which he used to either try to control world leaders or in one episode, Birdman himself. Mentok had some mechanical minions to protect him/assault Birdman. Little else is ever explained about him and the character was little more than a generic mad-scientist with mind-control technology. ''Harvey Birdman Attorney-at-law'' Harvey Birdman Attorney-at-law was a show deconstructing classic Hanna Barbera cartoons on Swim. Swim, being a subsidiary of Cartoon Network, owned a vast array of Hanna Barbera cartoons as part of their classic property arrangements and used the licensing to place classic Hanna Barbera cartoons in a show of their own. The show starred, Harvey Birdman, previously just called "Birdman", a 1970's long since passé, Hanna Barbera super-hero. The show's premise was that the various heroes and cartoon characters of classic Hanna Barbera cartoons, had been moving on and aging in the years since their original runs and given up their fantastical/nonsensical motives and methods to function as they would in the real world. Harvey Birdman had decided to go to law school to fight crime and get paid for it, a lifestyle which had long since quelled his wide-eyed heroism. Among the many characters on the show was Mentok. On Harvey-Birdman Attorney-at-law, Mentok was the replacement judge for Judge Hiram Mightor, who was arranged to be put in an accident when he had doubts about continuing to work for the Bedrock Mafia. Unlike Judge Mightor, Mentok had virtually no ties to case bias, less because of honesty and more because he was so powerful that he treated his court duty less as a job than as an excuse to mess with serious people. Mentok frequently boasted that because he was a Mindtaker, psychic, he already knew what the outcome of the cases would be and as such the entire trial was a waste of time, but as Mentok enjoys wasting time he still let Harvey and his rival lawyers make their cases while he spent the time amusing himself at the expense of others. Mentok was once taken up on charges by the genie Shazzan for imprisoning him in a lamp. Mentok also hit on most of the beautiful women who came in as witnesses, at-least twice to women Harvey was interested in. He was more than happy to throw sedation drugs at Ricochet Rabbit, was prepared to rule that Captain Caveman and his son did not exist, despite their presence right in front of everyone in order to placate conservative Christianity and once switched the mind of Evelyn Spyro Throckmorton with that of a dog, purely for his own amusement. He frequently demonstrates his powers on his bailiff, making the otherwise humorless straight-man do ridiculous things against his will. Future Quest In the comic-book, Future Quest Presents, issue 6, Mentok is reinvented as a psychic, a mutant who could not help but hear the thoughts of all those around him as he was growing up and his mutation just starting to take effect. He first killed as a teenager to get relief from their constant thinking. As an adult, he starts a cult, rather than hiding from thoughts, Mentok has learned to use the thoughts of others like fuel. By holding group meetings with his cult he takes aspects of each of their psyche's to form one massive pseudo-consciousness to pull down gods/god-like beings to bind. When Birdman encounters him, looking for a missing child, whose mind turns out to be held hostage by Mentok, Mentok is using the collective will of his thralls to try to summon an outer-god of pure darkness. Though Mentok throws many illusions and crushing mental weight at Birdman, Birdman is able to work through the crippling pressure and fight Mentok mentally by sticking true to his virtues. Mentok is beaten back into the portal he was opening and swallowed up by his dark-god. Birdman only hopes for Mentok's sake where-ever he ending up, it is at-least quiet. In this interpretation, Mentok does not use machines as he did in his 1970s incarnation, but is played seriously, unlike his 00's parody version. Mentok was apparently originally named Menton, before his powers took hold and his skin changed color. No indication is given of who his parents were or what became of them. Mentok knows each of his cultists by name, and genuinely sees them as a family, though one he is perfectly willing to exploit. In his mind summoning and binding an outer god as a resource will allow him to do right by his "family". Rivals Mentok only ever had real malice for two characters, Leroy Jetson, who used historical records from the future to predict Mentok's choices before he made them, thus throwing pre-destiny into the mix, which apparently even Mentok could not counter-act, and the second being Shado the Brainthief, who was a lawyer also with psychic powers but used them to try to win his cases. Mentok in particular disliked Shado as he used his power seriously while Mentok just did so for fun and also because Mentok was very territorial about another psychic coming in and messing with his cases. Skills and Abilities Mentok's favorite ability on both the original Birdman and Harvey Birdman Attorney-at-law, was hypnosis. While in the original all his powers were based on machines, the newer version does away with the concept to show he is just a powerful psychic. Mentok had an army of robot minions in the original show but has entirely removed them in Harvey Birdman Attorney-at-law, instead content to play with the minds of living people. Mentok is precognitive, can use telekinesis for anything from retrieving an object across the room to throwing people around remotely, to making himself levitate/fly. Mentok's power over the minds of others is so strong it is hard to tell sometimes if effects are actually taking place or are just illusions meant to accentuate his already massive powers. Mentok has telepathic powers and uses them like a ham-radio to tune into the minds of others until he finds a brain interesting to listen to. As a sitting Judge in Harvey Birdman Attorney-at-law, Mentok's ultimate powers were legal, as he had the final word on cases. Mentok is also extremely old, he claims to have been around since the 70's, not the 1970's the actual 70's, clarifying it as having been before religion. Personality Mentok has the personality of a carefree child, easily bored and thus constantly looking for mischief. As he was both a powerful psychic and sitting Judge, practically no one could depose his decisions, the only two times being once when Harvey made Mentok take the sedatives he was having Ricochet Rabbit take, in order to prove they were "harmless" and once when he was being tried for imprisoning Shazaam. Mentok makes silly sound effects out-load, openly hits on any women he finds attractive and is so uninvested with the actual cases put before them (since he already knows how they will turn out) that he spends most of the trial goofing off or tormenting his bailiff. Perhaps the only genuine virtue Mentok possesses is that unlike Judge Hiram Mightor, Mentok can not be bribed or intimidated and strongly resents anyone trying to buy him off. Category:Psychics Category:Trickster Category:Mind-Breakers Category:Brainwashers Category:Possessor Category:Status Dependent on Version Category:Evil Vs. Evil Category:Necessary Evil Category:Extravagant Category:Thrill-Seekers Category:Supervillains Category:Hanna Barbera Villains Category:Cartoon Villains Category:On & Off Category:Elderly Category:Genies Category:Love Rivals Category:Perverts Category:Honorable Category:Cult Leaders Category:Mutants Category:Aliens Category:Male Category:Chaotic Neutral Category:TV Show Villains